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44 to 45: Part 3

Niti (New Initiatives to Transform India) was the new addition in the past year. For the past few years, I have written often about many things we needed to do to transform India’s future. For the most part, it was just talk. Without putting in time and money and thus building a capacity to execute, the ideas would remain on paper. So, this year, I decided that the time had come to make Niti a reality. With a leader at the helm, I started putting together a team of people so we could start on a wide portfolio of activities.

Over the coming months, we will start launching the various projects across media and technology. The focus is what I had outlined in my speech at Columbia in April – changing minds to change people’s votes to bringing political change to bringing about the right policies for India’s development. The economic mess that we now find ourselves in now is a direct consequence of flawed policies through the years. Unless people know and realise this, we will not be able to bring lasting change in India.

My approach to Niti is that of an entrepreneur – think of the problem differently, and see what out-of the—box, disruptive solutions are possible. The constraint is time, not money.

3 responses so far ↓

Thank you Rajesh. I wish Niti success and hope it lives up to the promise.

A problem confronting media consumers in India today is simply this: there are no trustworthy news sources. Reporting events just as they happened, with no embellishment or adulteration, is the new normal. News without slant is a rarity to find. Can Niti Central fill the gap here? It would take no more than hiring a copy-writer or two to get them to detoxify wire reports as they come in, before they are published on NitiCentral. This can make the difference between “regular visitor” vs “a visitor who clicks pages several times a day”.

Kudos to you for launching NITI. Since, there is no news (or views) without slant, it would be better if NITI is upfront about its direction and funding. I was little disappointed to see NITI portal, however, considering that a pioneering tech entrpreuner like you is behind the enterprise. User Interface of Firstpost (in many ways similar to your format) is better than NITI’s. I hope you will pay attention to improving it to make it look more modern, slick, and easier to navigate.